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Law Integrated PhD

Overview

PhD student loans

The UK Government has introduced PhD loans of up to £25000 to UK and EU nationals, residing in England, for postgraduate research programmes starting in the academic year 2018-19. Read more here.

About the course

The Brunel Integrated PhD combines PhD research with a programme of structured research, professional and subject training. The programme typically takes 4 years (compared to 3 years for a non-integrated PhD programme). On successful completion, you will be awarded a PhD with an Integrated Postgraduate Diploma in Research in your chosen subject specialisation.

You will benefit from this programme immensely if you want to:

receive a more much guided and hands-on supervision of your learning and research process, especially if you come from more traditional teaching cultures

increase your changes for a timely completion of your PhD programme in comparison to students taking traditional route PhD, cutting down the expenses associated with prolonged study

access to tailored, highly specialist research training not available as part of the support provided to traditional route PhD students

maximise your changes for a successful research analysis by applying practical assignments and training which are part of the integrated PhD directly to the research you do for your thesis

receive an official Postgraduate Diploma in Research in addition to your PhD award to certify the completion of skills training which may be required by employers in some countries if you wish to pursue an academic career

Research areas

We are an intellectually dynamic and diverse community of scholars who share a clear commitment to broad-based legal research. Together, we have created a strong international research environment. Our research reaches from the local to the global, addressing important challenges in domestic law as well as universal legal, economic, and social issues.

The Magna Carta Institute seeks to influence some of the key political, legal and social issues of our time. Its research aim is to analyse how best to create and maintain just societies that fairly balance both personal freedom and authority, and the rights and responsibilities of individuals and society.

Course content

Employability

PhD+ Award – An internship to work in the industry or perform a research outreach or enterprise activity.

PhD Plus is a career development scheme designed to provide an opportunity for excellent PhD students to undertake work experience and mentoring, and to facilitate their transfer into a career area of their choice. The awards are targeted at exceptional PhD students who have submitted their thesis within the expected submission date and will provide up to three months’ funded support for the period after submissions of their thesis and before the confirmation of the award. The precise number awards each year will depend on the quality of the applicants, up to a maximum 8 awards. The maximum amount to be awarded will be in line with RCUK rates for research training support grants: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/skills/training/

Careers and your future

Paid work available to research studentsUndertaking teaching and learning support duties represents an important professional and career development opportunity for postgraduate research students. Brunel offers two levels of paid work available to Postgraduate Research students. The first level post is as a Demonstrator and the second level post is as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA). Teaching and learning support duties will vary between Departments and research students should not rely on such opportunities being available. Find out more here.

We encourage our PhD students to participate in all relevant research activities, particularly presenting papers on their new research findings. We are particularly committed in assisting the development of high quality early career researchers for the legal academy and for the profession. We have, over the past years produced several new scholars from our PhD candidates who, upon completion, have taken up full-time academic positions at Brunel, Reading, Sussex, East Anglia, Buckingham, and in India, the UAE, and Thailand, to mention a few.

At Brunel we provide many opportunities and experiences within your degree programme and beyond – work-based learning, professional support services, volunteering, mentoring, sports, arts, clubs, societies, and much, much more – and we encourage you to make the most of them, so that you can make the most of yourself.

Entry criteria 2019/20

The general University entrance requirement for registration for a research degree is normally a First or Upper Second Class Honours degree. All international students must show evidence that they meet the English requirement for their course of study. The Senate reserves the right to assess the eligibility of applicants on an individual basis.

Research statement

As part of our application process for entry on our research degree (MPhil and PhD) programmes, we ask you to provide a 500-1,000 word research statement, excluding any references/bibliography you may include, setting out your research motivation, ideas and aspirations. Learn how to prepare a research statement here.

Entry criteria are subject to review and change each academic year.

International and EU entry requirements

If your country or institution is not listed or if you are not sure whether your institution is eligible, please contact Admissions

This information is for guidance only by Brunel University London and by meeting the academic requirements does not guarantee entry for our courses as applications are assessed on case-by-case basis.

English language requirements

If you require a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK, you must prove knowledge of the English language so that we can issue you a Certificate of Acceptance for Study (CAS). To do this, you will need an IELTS for UKVI or Trinity SELT test pass gained from a test centre approved by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and on the Secure English Language Testing (SELT) list. This must have been taken and passed within two years from the date the CAS is made.

Should you wish to take a pre-sessional English course to improve your English prior to starting your degree course, you must sit the test at an approved SELT provider for the same reason.

We offer our own BrunELT English Test and have pre-sessional English language courses for students who do not meet requirements or who wish to improve their English. You can find out more information on English courses and test options at the Brunel Language Centre.

Teaching and learning

Special features

Facts and figures

Brunel University London REF2014 Submission: Law. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. The results of the REF2014 have been made public in December 2014, replacing the previous REF conducted in 2008. The next REF will be undertaken in 2020.

Library servicesBrunel's library is open 24 hours a day, has 400,000 books and 250,000 e-books, and an annual budget of almost £2m. Subject Information Specialists train students in the latest technology, digital literacy, and digital dissemination of scholarly outputs.

state-of-the-art research information management tools including a research publication and grant database